New Moving Movie Theater Chairs to Enhance Experience, Raise Ticket Prices

The advent of digital 3D served two purposes: it made the moviegoing experience more immersive for audiences, and it raised ticket prices for theaters and studios.

For example, "Avatar" set all kinds of box office records by making audiences feel like they were on Pandora and charging them an extra premium, thereby inflating box office numbers.

Now there's a new movie theater technology in town, here to make us feel like we're in the movie (and to charge us extra for it). It's called D-Box, and, simply put, it's a moving chair.

The D-Box chair is automated to pitch forward, lean back, tilt side to side, raise up, and quickly lower to simulate a momentary freefall.

D-Box programmers will go through a movie frame by frame and program in the appropriate movements for the chair to match the action on-screen. If a car veers to one side, the chair will simulate the inertia by leaning the chair to the side.

If a character jumps off a cliff, the seat will lower, making the occupant feel a falling sensation as well.

So far, the D-Box system has been used for "Fast & Furious" and more recently for "Fast Five," but only in very limited release. The company has made deals with more studios, so you can expect to see more D-Box-equipped theaters in the future. Select locations plan on screen "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" this summer with the D-Box experience.

Of course, if you want to try it, it will cost you: theaters add a premium of about $8 to D-Box movies. Is it worth it? Maybe for a movie like "Harry Potter." But I wouldn't recommend trying it with "Something Borrowed."